'Photo Album Recovery Raises Hopes Again: Is This Cyworld’s Real Comeback?'

Will Sigma Chain Become Cyworld’s Sixth Owner?

Main Domain Not Secured vs. IP Acquired

In Cyworld 3.0, Dotori Will Become a Digital Asset

Cyworld, the representative social network service of the 2000s and 2010s, has announced its return with a beta service launching in October. However, unresolved acquisition risks are raising concerns.

Hyunggeun Park, CCO of Sigma Chain, is answering questions at the Cyworld acquisition and service press conference held on the 10th at the Courtyard Marriott Seoul Myeongdong Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The new operator, Sigma Chain, has acquired the Cyworld intellectual property (IP), and, after restoring data and stabilizing the service, is aiming for a full service launch in the first half of 2027. Sigma Chain, a blockchain technology company, holds patents related to data processing and verification, software, systems, and digital identity authentication technologies.

According to Yonhap News, on the 10th, Sigma Chain held a press conference titled "The Return of Cyworld" and "Cyworld 3.0" at Courtyard Marriott Seoul Myeongdong Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, to mark the new beginning of Cyworld.

Despite the ambitious launch, the event began with discord. This was because Ho Kwang Kim, former CEO of Cyworld Z and current CEO of Beta Labs, held an unplanned press conference in the hallway of the venue.

Kim said, "I cannot accept a transaction that was carried out when Cyworld's business rights and domain are under provisional seizure," and added, "IntroMedic, the largest shareholder, and Beta Labs, which owns more than a 15% stake, have not received any notification of a shareholders' meeting regarding the sale."

This statement contradicts the argument made by Sigma Chain, the blockchain company that announced it had completed the acquisition of Cyworld and would launch a beta service in October. Peter Han, a global director at Sigma Chain, stated, "We have acquired the license from CyCommunications through a legitimate procedure."

If the legal disputes surrounding the acquisition are resolved, the most significant change in the official service launch expected in the first half of the year will be the business model. Sigma Chain explained that, if users wish, they can tokenize their Minihompy content as NFTs and that stablecoins issued by financial institutions will be linked to Cyworld's Dotori virtual currency.

With the advent of the Cyworld 3.0 era, the core features of the original Cyworld—such as Minihompy, Ilchon (friend connections), background music, and Dotori—will be restored, and user-created digital assets like photos, posts, and music will be further expanded. The revenue-sharing ecosystem will allocate 40% of revenues to users, 40% to creators, and 20% to the platform.

To date, Cyworld has had five changes in ownership. Launched in 1999 by KAIST graduate students as a community, Cyworld grew rapidly with its Minihompy feature. In 2003, after being acquired by SK Communications, it gained immense popularity, generating more than 100 billion won per year solely from Dotori sales.

However, with the emergence of Facebook and Instagram in the 2010s, Cyworld lost its dominance in social networking. In 2016, ownership passed to Jeon Je-wan, founder of the portal site Freechal.

After the service ended in 2019, Cyworld Z took over in 2021 but failed to resume operations due to financial difficulties. In November 2024, a special purpose company, Cycomz, acquired the business rights from Cyworld Z and announced a comeback with 3D Mini-Me avatars and chat features, but operations were halted due to insufficient funding for data restoration.

With Sigma Chain set to become the sixth owner, some have raised concerns that an unknown company might be exploiting Cyworld to attract investment. In response to these concerns, Sigma Chain stated, "CEO Jin Young Kwak was a founding member involved in the design of the original database, which indicates a genuine intention to restore Korea's shared digital memories."

Meanwhile, internet users who heard the news of Cyworld's comeback shared mixed reactions, saying, "All the memories from my children's childhood are in my photo albums, so I didn't delete the app and just kept waiting," "Will you also be able to restore lost IDs?" and "It always comes back and then disappears again."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.